West Texas A&M University

WTAMU Tinnitus Research Needs Volunteers for Study

CANYON, Texas—Tinnitus sufferers from Korea to Montenegro have contacted West Texas A&M University to seek help and answers from research professor Dr. Leslie Dalton Jr., His work continues, and tinnitus sufferers are encouraged to volunteer as subjects in his continuing tinnitus research.

Dalton has been delving into the problem of tinnitus or ringing in the ears for many years. He came to WT in 2008 as a professor in the communications disorders department and brought his brain research with him as well as a prototype tinnitus cancellation program. His current efforts in advanced studies in tinnitus, hearing disorders and other neurological disorders such as autism and PTSD are joint projects with Dr. Gary Byrd, professor of psychology, and Dr. Timothy Atchison, assistant professor of psychology, on the WTAMU Department of Psychology, Sociology and Social Work.

In 2010 Dalton joined forces with Headsets, Inc., a long-time Amarillo manufacturer of military and aviation earphones and headsets, in obtaining a grant from the Amarillo EnterPrize Challenge, a program of the West Texas A&M Enterprise Center. The grant was used to develop the tinnitus patent Dalton brought with him to WTAMU into a marketable product. The patent was granted but Dalton is quick to point out that “I’ve have been working with that dang procedure for neigh on 20 years now, and I’m ready to do something else.” Headsets, Inc., under the name Dichonics, markets the Dalton invention as a revolutionary, high tech, on-line tinnitus diagnosis and treatment program available to anyone, anywhere, anytime who has an internet link.

Dalton is now ready to get back to the laboratory to continue his tinnitus work. His focus will shift to Magnetoencephalography as an evidenced-based procedure for tinnitus therapy and other neurological disorders in collaboration with Dr. Julia Stephen of The Mind Research Center at the University on New Mexico.

“I feel that through my WT research I have shown that ringing in the ears can be effectively reduced, but I want to take it to the next level and measure what my technique is doing to brain plasticity,” Dalton said. “In my tinnitus work I also discovered serendipitously that we can restore significant levels of speech discrimination in a way that current hearing aid technology cannot. We have already started that research, and we will be inviting the hearing-aid-wearing public who often complain that ‘I can hear you but I can’t understand you’ to get in touch with us to be a part of our current WT on-campus research.”

Those interested in taking part in Dalton’s research can contact him at ldalton@wtamu.edu.